18890: (Craig) Article: U.S. to Mediate in Haiti Crisis (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

U.S. to Mediate in Haiti Crisis; Urges Americans to Leave
February 20, 2004
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS and LYDIA POLGREEN

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 - As Haiti's rebellion spread, the Bush
administration took a more active role Thursday in trying
to broker a political settlement, and urged Americans to
leave the country.

The administration's shift came just days after officials
had called on Haitians to assume responsibility for their
crisis and seemed prepared to let regional diplomats take
the lead in negotiating a peaceful settlement.

But, under growing pressure from relief agencies and human
rights groups, the administration brought together
diplomats from the Organization of American States, the
Caribbean Community, the United Nations and France to draft
a proposal for ending the violence with specific steps that
the Haitian government and its opponents could take.

In addition, the Pentagon announced it would send a small
military team to Haiti to determine the risk to the United
States Embassy there at the request of the American
ambassdor, James B. Foley.

The State Department urged Americans, including members of
the Peace Corps, to leave Haiti because of "a steady
deterioration of the security situation." The department
also imposed a nighttime curfew on its employees and
restricted them to Port-au-Prince, the capital.

At least 57 Haitians have died since the violence began two
weeks ago. International relief officials have expressed
concern that demonstrators may touch off a food crisis by
interfering with deliveries.

Until now, the Bush administration has discounted the
possibility of sending in troops, even as it remains alert
to the potential for a refugee exodus bound for Florida.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said earlier this week
the administration had "no enthusiasm" for sending in
American forces. France and Canada have volunteered to send
police forces, but only in the context of a political
solution to the crisis.

Working by telephone in concert with their regional allies
and France, administration officials on Thursday put the
final touches on a plan that called on President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to appoint a new government,
strengthen the police and release detainees, while
requiring that his opponents disarm and enter a political
dialogue, officials said.

Mr. Powell said Mr. Aristide's resignation was not part of
the plan, though he left open the possibility that the
president might step down under a negotiated settlement.

"If an agreement is reached that moves that in another
direction, that's fine," Mr. Powell told Sam Donaldson in
an interview on ABC Radio. "But right now, he has no
intention to step down, and since he is the elected leader
of Haiti, we should not be putting forward a plan that
would require him to step down."

A defiant Mr. Aristide, speaking at a ceremony at the
National Palace in Port-au-Prince in honor of policemen
killed since the uprising began, told a somber crowd that
he would not cede the presidency.

"I am ready to give my life if that is what it takes to
defend my country," he said.

A senior foreign diplomat said Haiti's crisis was
complicated by the ambivalence many officials felt toward
Mr. Aristide, who refused to hold new parliamentary
elections after allegations of fraud in 2000.

"It's very difficult that people put their forces at risk
to defend that," the diplomat said. "It's not a full
democracy."

Mr. Aristide has repeatedly said he will serve out his
term, which ends in 2006. He became Haiti's first elected
president in 1990; he was ousted in a coup, then reinstated
by American forces in 1994. Since then, his relationship
with the United States has been strained, with American
officials challenging what they say is his uncompromising
style and rule by intimidation.

Bush administration officials say Mr. Aristide has already
embraced an accord put forth by the Caribbean Community, or
Caricom, though the details of that document have not been
made public.

The Caricom accord, which is the basis for the proposal
being drafted, calls for the appointment of a new prime
minister who would be neutral and independent, a government
of national unity and the establishment of a new electoral
commission, officials said.

Some political analysts said such changes would be
difficult to carry out in a country in turmoil like Haiti,
and they noted that many Aristide opponents say they would
accept nothing less than his departure.

The Haitian capital has remained largely calm, but panic
seeped deeper into other Haitian cities and the countryside
as antigovernment militants gathered in the north.

In St.-Marc, a port city north of the capital, where
pro-government supporters and anti-Aristide militants have
battled for two weeks, police officers have been replaced
by men toting machine guns and wearing military fatigues.

"These are not police," said one merchant in the city,
using a Creole word that means "monster."

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who has been accused of
plotting a coup and who returned from the Dominican
Republic to command a rebel force, told reporters in
Gona?ves that he and his 300 men were planning an assault
on Port-au-Prince.

"If Aristide doesn't leave, we will march on the capital,"
Mr. Philippe said on Radio Vision 2000.

In Cap Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, militant
supporters of the government erected barricades to keep out
armed anti-Aristide militias who have taken control of the
surrounding countryside. Some police officers refused to
leave their barracks to patrol the streets, but others
stepped into their place.

Relief groups sent more experts to provide medical
assistance to Cap Haitien and other areas of conflict.

Christopher Marquis reported from Washington for this
article and Lydia Polgreen from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/politics/20HAIT.html?ex=1078283434&ei=1&en=44c070c1f759b624
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company